Benalla case: Macron keeps silent but the pressure rises

Since the beginning of the Benalla affair, the most serious political crisis he has been going through since the beginning of the five-year period, Emmanuel Macron remains silent, but calls are multiplying in the political class to explain itself

The Elysee Palace gave no indication of a possible speech by the president. He had to spend the weekend working in Paris or at La Lanterne, the presidential residence located on the sidelines of the park of Versailles.

In the eyes of a source close to the executive, by the various investigations launched by the Justice, the Parliament or the IGPN (the police of the policies), "all the levers were actuated" and it is therefore "not necessary" that the president expresses himself "in the immediate" about his ex -collaborator Alexandre Benalla, in custody for violence on May 1.

But a source in the majority, stunned by the brief communication of the spokesman of the Elysée Thursday, thinks that "it would have been necessary to communicate quickly and clearly to try to at least stop the case. " This silence at the top of the state is all the more damaging as "the TVs continuously loop with that."

"The longer it is silent, the more it feeds the interrogations", urged a member of the opposition . "In crisis management, they checked all the boxes" for a failure, judged another.

The tenors on Saturday increased pressure on the head of state. For the president of LR Laurent Wauquiez, Alexandre Benalla "will account to the justice, but Emmanuel Macron, him, will have to account to the French".

He listed in Le Figaro the questions facing the head of state: "Who knew when? Why was justice not seized? Why was there so far? 'to instrumentalize the police to quell the affair' What secrets is Benalla the keeper for being so protected? '"

-" Watergate "-

Emmanuel Macron on July 20, 2018 at the Elysee Palace in Paris / AFP / Archives

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of La France unsubdued, judged the case " of the Watergate ", which led to the resignation of US President Richard Nixon, when the President of the National Rally (ex-FN) Marine Le Pen warned that" if Macron can not be explained, the case Benalla will become the Macron affair.

"The President of the Republic will have to speak to the French on television", assured in front of press Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (Standing France).

Faced with what is already denounced by some as a "state scandal", Gilles Le Gendre, spokesman for LREM deputies, accuses the oppositions of " instrumentalize this case "because they" "still have not digested the stinging defeat" at the polls a year ago.

For the executive, it is in the immediate matter to prepare the hearings much awaited in the coming days, first that Gerard Collomb before the Committee on the Laws of the Assembly Monday.

According to Mr. Mélenchon, "the Minister of the Interior is already disqualified" and "of course he will resign and he will not be the only one".

"No fuse will forget that everything has been flown since the Elysee," says Mr. Wauquiez.

Since coming to power, Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly shown that he did not like to react under pressure, especially media or partisan.

Gérard Collomb at the Assembly in Paris on June 13, 2018 / AFP / Archives

But he has also evolved his communication in recent months, from a rare word to a much more frequent expression, especially during his travels.

During his visit Thursday in the Dordogne, he refused to answer the many questions of journalists asking him to react to the revelations of the daily Le Monde.

"The Republic is unalterable!", he only let go in response to a journalist who asked him if the Republic was not "tainted" by this case.

Some in the majority still hope that the fever will fall by the holidays of the executive, scheduled after the Council of Ministers Friday, August 3. In the meantime, Emmanuel Macron will have to go next week to a stage in the Tour de France, then to Spain and Portugal.

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